In the decades long past, when The Writer was living in a hot desert country, and when she would sneer and smirk at all things hand-knitted, a different craft had grabbed her heart and held her enthralled for many years.
Through the challenging times of living in a tiny desert village, going through a long divorce , becoming an efficient single parent, sending the girls to a residential school across the ocean, and deciding to return to India without a proper game-plan, it was the craft of cross stitch which kept me going.
I used to love the symmetry and simple method of putting coloured crosses on the canvas, and watch paintings, objects and people emerge on the cloth, while quiet hours went past on my rocking chair. Perfectionism was a passion those days, and every stitch had to be crossed the same way , so that there was a play of light and shade on the final picture.
While others made cushion covers and table mats, I would frame every project and put it on the wall. Friends were presented with some of them, but the majority stayed with me, as symbols of challenging times faced and overcome. Nowadays, I like the range of expressions which flit past the eyes of listeners when I point out the pictures made while divorce happened, while the girls settled down to school far from me, while I shifted back to India, etc..Cross stitch times were my crutch in crucial times.
After a long, long time, I am taking a break from knitting.Apart from some inconclusive swatching with a lovely yarn from my stash, no other knitting project has caught my attention.
What has caught my eye, however, is this ancient book, faded and coloured with time, published by DMC threads, sometime in the 1950s. This slim collection of cross stitch patterns, which are definitely not out-dated, have been chosen to be made into cross stitch cushion covers. Canvas has been stitched on raw silk fabric, and the embroidery has begun. The canvas threads will be pulled out, one thread by painstaking one thread, till the cross stitch pattern gleams on the silk.
Its a long, long process…I am still working on the first piece….and then there’s the finishing ….But someday, I hope to show you the entire set.
Till then, its one stitch at a time, quietly and perfectly.